joining us now, steve clemmons, you can find him writing at the note and the atlantic magazine. thank you for joining us tonight. >> sure thing, rachel. >> you were skeptical from the beginning about whether or not outside countries getting involved militarily in libya would produce a positive outcome. you worried the western footprint is too large and this needs to be the libyan people who take control of their own destiny. now, with what is going on in tripoli tonight, was that footprint too large? is this ending as a libyan outcome? how do you feel about this? >> i think president obama watched your show. and he created an intervention that actually, despite the sorties and the various kinds of presence we had, he nonetheless kept the intervention from becoming a slippery slope to a deeper, broader ownership of the outcome. to build on the theme of tonight's show he had a tipping point strategy to tilt the odds toward the rebels, given what they were facing. but this could have gone badly. and we didn't own the outcome. if you listen to president obama's remarks tonight, he e